Lending indicators

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Data download

This release is about new borrower-accepted finance commitments for housing, personal and business loans

Reference period
March 2021
Released
4/05/2021

Key statistics

In March 2021, new loan commitments (seasonally adjusted):

  • rose 5.5 per cent for housing
  • rose 2.1 per cent for personal fixed term loans
  • rose 6.7 per cent for business construction (typically a volatile series)

New borrower-accepted loan commitments (seasonally adjusted)

Mar-21 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Households   
 Housing30.235.555.3
  Owner occupier (a)22.413.355.6
  Investor (a)7.8112.754.3
 Personal   
  Fixed term loans1.842.113.9
Businesses   
 Construction2.796.7-12.5
 Purchase of property5.1411.310.0

(a) Loan commitments for owner occupier, investor housing and personal fixed term loans exclude refinancing.

 

Important data quality note

     

Housing finance

In seasonally adjusted terms, in March 2021:

  • The value of new loan commitments for housing rose 5.5 per cent, a 55.3 per cent rise through the year
  • The value of new loan commitments to owner occupiers rose 3.3 per cent, a 55.6 per cent rise through the year
  • The value of new loan commitments to investors rose 12.7 per cent, a 54.3 per cent rise through the year

New loan commitments, total housing (seasonally adjusted), values, Australia

New loan commitments, total housing (seasonally adjusted), values, Australia

Line chart with 3 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $ billions. Data ranges from 4.066 to 30.227.
End of interactive chart.

  

Personal finance

In seasonally adjusted terms, in March 2021:

  • The value of new loan commitments for fixed term personal lending rose 2.1 per cent
  • The value of new loan commitments for road vehicles rose 4.5 per cent
  • The value of new loan commitments for personal investment fell 16.5 per cent

New loan commitments, personal fixed term loans (seasonally adjusted), values, Australia - larger purposes

New loan commitments, personal fixed term loans (seasonally adjusted), values, Australia - larger purposes

Line chart with 4 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $ billions. Data ranges from 0.127 to 2.308.
End of interactive chart.

New loan commitments, personal fixed term loans (seasonally adjusted), values, Australia - smaller purposes

New loan commitments, personal fixed term loans (seasonally adjusted), values, Australia - smaller purposes

Line chart with 3 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $ billions. Data ranges from 0.002 to 0.101.
End of interactive chart.

  

Business finance

In seasonally adjusted terms, in March 2021:

  • The value of new loan commitments for construction rose 6.7 per cent
  • The value of new loan commitments for purchase of property rose 11.3 per cent

New loan commitments, business finance by purpose (seasonally adjusted), values, Australia

New loan commitments, business finance by purpose (seasonally adjusted), values, Australia

Line chart with 2 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $ billions. Data ranges from 0.694 to 8.347.
End of interactive chart.

Housing finance (detailed)

New loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

Mar-2021Month percent changeYear percent change
Value($b)(%)(%)
 Owner occupier   
      Total housing (a)22.413.355.6
  Construction of dwellings3.64-14.5123.6
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings1.607.846.6
  Purchase of existing dwellings15.528.845.2
      First home buyers6.82-0.961.4
 Investor   
      Total housing (a)7.8112.754.3
Number(No.)(%)(%)
 Owner occupier   
      Total housing (a) (b)---
  Construction of dwellings 8 272-18.1129.9
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings 3 0818.045.1
  Purchase of existing dwellings28 5497.739.1
      First home buyers15 623-3.158.3
 Investor   
      Total housing (a) (b)---

(a) Housing includes loan commitments for dwellings, purchase of residential land and for alterations and additions.
(b) There is no seasonally adjusted or trend data available for the number of owner occupiers or investors for total housing as the data was collected from July 2019.

 

In seasonally adjusted terms, in March 2021:

  • The value of new loan commitments to owner occupiers rose 3.3 per cent, to be 55.6 per cent higher than in March 2020. This followed a fall of 1.8 per cent in February 2020.
  • The value of new loan commitments for investor housing rose 12.7 per cent, to be 54.3 per cent higher than in March 2020. This continued a period of rises since May 2020 when it reached a 20 year low.

New loan commitments for housing by purpose (seasonally adjusted), monthly growth in value, Australia

New loan commitments for housing by purpose (seasonally adjusted), monthly growth in value, Australia

Bar chart with 2 data series.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying % month-on-month movement. Data ranges from -15.9 to 13.9.
End of interactive chart.

  

In seasonally adjusted terms, in March 2021:

  • The value of new loan commitments for the purchase of existing dwellings rose 8.8 per cent, to be 45.2 per cent higher than in March 2020
  • The value of new loan commitments for the construction of new dwellings fell 14.5 per cent, the first fall since June 2020. It remains at historically high levels and is 123.6 per cent higher than in March 2020.
  • The Homebuilder grant (introduced in June 2020) was reduced from $25k to $15k effective from 1 January 2021
  • The value of new loan commitments for the purchase of new dwellings rose 7.8 per cent

New loan commitments for owner occupier housing by purpose (seasonally adjusted), values, Australia

New loan commitments for owner occupier housing by purpose (seasonally adjusted), values, Australia

Line chart with 5 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $ billions. Data ranges from 0.182 to 15.522.
End of interactive chart.

(a) For periods prior to July 2019, statistics about owner occupier commitments for residential land are modelled using data about the total value of  commitments for residential land.

* Hide/unhide series in the graph by clicking the legend above (toggle the 'purchase of existing dwellings' series for a closer look at the other purposes of owner occupier lending).

 

In seasonally adjusted terms, in March 2021:

  • The value of new loan commitments to owner occupiers rose 8.2 per cent in New South Wales
  • The value of new loan commitments to owner occupiers also rose 1.6 per cent in Victoria and 1.1 per cent in Queensland
  • The value of new loan commitments to owner occupiers fell 6.5 per cent in Western Australia and 2.8 per cent in South Australia

New loan commitments for owner occupier housing (seasonally adjusted), values, by state

New loan commitments for owner occupier housing (seasonally adjusted), values, by state

Line chart with 8 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $ billions. Data ranges from 0.045 to 6.991.
End of interactive chart.

  

In seasonally adjusted terms, in March 2021:

  • The value of new loan commitments to investors rose across all states except the Australian Capital Territory
  • The value of new loan commitments to investors rose 13.0 per cent in New South Wales, 13.7 per cent in Victoria and 19.0 per cent in Queensland

New loan commitments for investor housing (seasonally adjusted), values, by state

New loan commitments for investor housing (seasonally adjusted), values, by state

Line chart with 8 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $ billions. Data ranges from 0.008 to 4.426.
End of interactive chart.

  

In original terms, in March 2021:

  • The value of new variable rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 19.3 per cent
  • The value of new fixed rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 34.5 per cent
  • The value of new variable rate loan commitments to first home buyers funded in the month rose 12.2 per cent
  • The value of new fixed rate loan commitments to first home buyers funded in the month rose 34.0 per cent

Loan commitments to residents funded* in the month, including internal and external refinancing (original), value, Australia

Loan commitments to residents funded* in the month, including internal and external refinancing (original), value, Australia

Line chart with 4 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $ billions. Data ranges from 0.718 to 31.
End of interactive chart.

*A loan is considered funded once any portion of the funds is made available for the borrower to draw down according to the terms of the contract. This will occur after there is a borrower-accepted commitment to provide finance.

**Total Fixed rate and Total Variable rate housing loans include first home buyer loans

First home buyers

In March 2021:

  • The number of owner occupier first home buyer loan commitments decreased 3.1 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms

  • The number of first home buyer loan commitments for investment purposes accounted for 5.1 per cent of all first home buyer commitments, in original terms

  • Owner occupier first home buyer loan commitments accounted for 33.7 per cent of all owner occupier commitments (excluding refinancing), in original terms

 

  

New loan commitments to owner occupier first home buyers (original), number

 First home buyer loan commitmentsFirst home buyer ratioFirst home buyer ratio
 NumberDwellingsHousing
Total Australia16 20038.8%33.7%
 New South Wales 3 73335.4%30.4%
 Victoria 4 62341.5%35.4%
 Queensland 3 43736.6%32.2%
 South Australia 1 07234.3%29.6%
 Western Australia 2 57946.9%42.5%
 Tasmania 27733.5%27.2%
 Northern Territory 13145.0%41.6%
 Australian Capital Territory 34838.2%33.8%

New loan commitments to owner occupier first home buyers (seasonally adjusted), number, Australia

New loan commitments to owner occupier first home buyers (seasonally adjusted), number, Australia

Line chart with 217 data points.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying Number of commitments. Data ranges from 6003 to 16754.
End of interactive chart.

  

New loan commitments to owner occupier first home buyers (seasonally adjusted), number, by state

New loan commitments to owner occupier first home buyers (seasonally adjusted), number, by state

Line chart with 8 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying Number of commitments. Data ranges from 27 to 5188.
End of interactive chart.

Data downloads

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Data cubes

Series ID concordance mapping

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5601.0.